What was Bush like when he was Gov. of Texas?

[napi21]

I'm referring to his speaking ability (or lack of it), and the dumb things he seems to do, like falling off his bike, etc. I've been seeing a lot of suppositions that he's drinking, or on meds, or something. I lived in Tx for 6 years, but moved just before he won over Ann Richards.

I'm just curious if he has always appeared imcompetant, is the pressure of the Presidency getting to him, or maybe there is some connection to a substance of come kind.

[demnan]

1. Read Shrub

by Molly Ivins. That pretty much describes it. And he hasn't changed much.

[RodneyCK2]

9. I agree, or read "Bushwhacked" by Molly

they both go into great detail of how he f*cked up TX.

[WI_DEM]

2. he was the same incompetent idiot then that he is now

and wholly inappropriate like winking and grinning at reporters while attending funerals. He hasn't changed. He is still a frat boy.

[cspiguy]

3. he was widely considered a moderate who got consensus

a lot. Don't know where he went.

[Flubadubya]

4. Texas suffered largest budget shortfall...

in the history of the state right after Shrub left the office of governor to assume his "role" as pRez. He nearly bankrupted the state, and I knew that was exactly what he was going to do to the country as a whole once he got to Washington. I have not been proven wrong!

[Texasgal]

5. He was HORRIBLE!!!! n/t

[tanyev]

6. Well, I didn't vote for him then either,

mostly because he struck me as a aging frat boy who hadn't accomplished much of anything, but he definitely was more coherent then. I do not remember cringing every time he showed up on television, watching him struggle just to put a sentence together.

[GOPisEvil]

7. The Govenor of Texas really doesn't do a whole lot.

The Lt. Governor does most of the heavy lifting. In Shrub's first term, the Lt. Gov. was a Democrat (a conservative one, but still) so a lot of the agenda was pretty balanced. In his second term, pRick Perry was his LG, so they crammed a lot of crap down our throats WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEMOCRATS IN THE LEGISLATURE, who held majorities in both houses. There was a sense that they were all trying to get George elected President. Now, there were some good results (finally getting CHIP) but overall, those policies have doomed us.

[pop goes the weasel]

12. TX state Dems

are wholly culpable in the creation of Pretzel Boy.

[Bridget Burke]

8. He's definitely become less coherent.

No doubt about it, he was an offensive creep who I gladly voted against. An aging fratboy without a deep thought in his head. Read the works of Molly Ivins to see what he did to Texas.

But I saw a clip recently of a speech during his campaign for governor. He was glib & sure of himself--far more "together" than he's been lately.

I doubt he's abusing any substance on his own; he's got too many keepers. But I'm quite willing to believe he's being medicated for some health problems. Some of the problems may stem from his own past--or the gin his Ma drank while she was carrying him--or from one of those times he fell on his head.

[The Doctor.]

10. He's never had to actually 'work' for anything in

his entire life. He has no appreciation for hard work at all. He's been bailed out of every failure he's created by his rich and powerful family and friends. He's terribly lazy in terms of gathering knowledge, nor does he hold learning in very high regard because he's never had to learn very much because he's been handed everything including the presidency.
In fact I believe the hardest he's ever had to work is while practicing his speeches. He should be thankful that his speech writers have managed to dumb down their writing to compensate for his lack of ability.

In Texas his only saving grace was his ability to get people to work on his ambitions, but even then he was a president's son and had more leverage than most governors could have dreamed.
While he was governor of Texas, the state suffered the worst environmental backslide ever as well. (There's more, but there's not enough space on this website to describe it all...)

[CBHagman]

11. Nasty to the daughter of James Byrd

The story goes (according to Lou Dubose and Molly Ivins) that the daughter of the murdered James Byrd visited Bush in his office concerning hate crimes legislation. Bush apparently said he hadn't even read it and just threw the paper on his desk. Byrd's daughter (I think her name is Renee Mullins) was rather emotional and teary but apparently received no sympathetic reception from Bush.

The NAACP ran ads against Bush referring to the crime against James Byrd, and Bush has never, never forgiven them for it. He still won't speak at their meetings. Notice how much self-absorption and self-pity this reveals. It costs nothing, politically or personally, to be gracious to a petitioner, especially one who is a grieving relative of a crime victim. A person with class, or at least a bit of decency, would have explained he had to consider the matter carefully but that he was sorry, very sorry, for the woman's loss. He could at least have told her they were on the same side, in one sense or another, in that they both want justice.

Apparently, he did none of these things.

But Bush was enthusiastic during a 2000 debate when he mentioned that the killers of James Byrd would be executed. "Guess what's going to happen to them." My co-worker, listening to the debate, found this creepy, as did Mark Crispin Miller, who analyzes the matter in The Bush Dyslexicon.

[cmf]

13. He was a butthole

Not much has changed in 10 years.

[seabeyond]

14. he was never around, he was always on vacation

governer doesnt have to do much of anything and the only things required, like stopping executions he mocked or did in disdain or preformed exactly as he does now.

why i so didnt want him in 2000

my issue..........he fucked up our schools, took our afterschool adn feeding programs, lessened housing for poor

[hatrack]

15. Lazy, Disengaged, Indifferent, Ignorant

I think that about covers it.

[DebinTx]

16. The man's an alcoholic

and it's pickeled his brain over the years. In fact, I'm willing to bet he's now allergic to alcohol. He found God in the bottom of a bottle of booze? Bwahahahaha!

He wasn't a good governor, imo, and I never voted for him. When he ran for president, and being a Texan, one recognized that he basically recycled his governor campaign speeches. The first time I heard him talk about health care reforms while campaigning for president I knew immediately that the country wasn't ever going to see it if he was elected. Where is it? Prescription reform - where is it? Pollution credits - just look at Houston. The man's a bold-faced liar and con man. Sorry to rant - I guess you can tell I'm not thrilled with him at all.

Molly Ivins has nailed him solidly in her books. That's why he won't recognize her at press conferences - she continues to nail him.